Before The War
by PlantMurderer
Summary: A collection of one-shots that take place from before the destruction of Pellinor to around the time when Baladh fell. They focus on characters before they entered battle. Spoilers up through The Crow.
1. Zelika Exploring

The gardens around Zelika's home were beautiful that spring. Fruit trees covered in blossoms dropped petals that blanketed the ground and drifted in the wind. The air was cool and sweet and the pools were full of lilies and young fish glinting gold in the sunlight. The lady of the house loved to sit on the low wall around the pool and had done so quite often in the past month because her condition made sparring dangerous. There was only one small thing disturbing the peace there as she sat enjoying a lovely afternoon and letting wind carry away her restlessness.

She heard the scratching sound of sandals against metal followed by a light but firm thump.

She smiled.

"Zelika. So our little runaway has returned?"

"I wasn't runnin' off Mother. I was just exploring."

"And to do this exploring, you had to knock down your father's bookshelf?"

"I made a distraction, like Great-grandfather from my lessons yesterday. The servants never let me go anywhere. I'm not a baby."

"You're right, you are not a baby, but that does not does not give you cause to be a nuisance. Who was looking after your brothers while you were off exploring?"

"The servants?"

"They have enough work of their own without doing your duties as well. Soon you'll have another little one to look after. I can't have you running off and leaving his or her care to the servants. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mother."

She patted a place on the wall next to her.

"Come sit with me, Zel."

The girl smiled, seeing that her mother wasn't too angry, and quickly joined her.

"So, little runaway, put your hand on my belly and you can tell us about your travels while we wait to see if our dear one will kick."

"Yes, Mother," she said respectfully, before taking a deep breath and starting her story with all the excitement in her ten year old body. "I climbed over the back wall, and it was really high but there was a tree close to it. So I climbed up the tree and jumped onto the top and I could see so far! I tried to see the tower where the Nameless One lives, but all I could see were houses, and the market place, and streets and people. There were so many people, how did all those people get here?"

"Some came like your brothers, in their mother's bellies. Some walked and came by wagons or were carried in arms. What did do next? Did you jump down into the alley?"

"No, I know I'm not allowed to go into the alley. I walked down the wall like a road and went to the training ground. Grandfather was there and he helped me get down. He sparred with this man who was almost as big as Father! It was amazing! Then, he taught me some new techniques and I sparred with a boy who was older than me and I won! Grandfather says that I will be a true daughter of our house when I'm older. Do you miss sparring mother? Why can't you train?"

"I can't train now because…your brother is sleeping inside me now and if I movie around too much I'll wake him up. If I wake him up too soon he'll be cross. I miss sparring and training. I've done it my whole life, as will you, but the rest is an interesting change of pace. OH! Did you feel it?"

Zelika nodded and smiled. Privately she thought that the world might witness a kind smile in Dén Raven before ever seeing a day when exploring wasn't more fun than anything else in the world. Then again, this was nice.

The chance to Sit and talk with her mother without having to look after the boys was rare and welcome. They'd been there for as long as she could remember, and for the majority of her life Zelika had had to accept her role as their last line of defense and the first person that they should alert if they had problems. She was the only child who could go to their parents first and directly if there was a problem and the boys knew that she had the same authority over them as their parents. She was also responsible for breaking up disputes between the two boys and making sure that they understood their lessons.

With this newest sibling she'd have more duties, because the baby would have more needs but, at the same time, her brothers would share work. She was very excited.

"Mother, I'd better go look in on the boys. Then I should study before my lesson with Grandmother and call a servant to watch them while I'm busy. I'm sorry I ran off. I know that I'm supposed to protect them but you also said to be brave and resourceful and I did that, right?"

"Yes, you did. I love that you find such joy in our city. The soldiers at the training fields are rather fond of your visits, but your responsibilities to your family come first. Explore before they wake up, and you will not have to cause mischief to get away, because the servants will be too busy with breakfast to notice you. If I have to come and find you, you will wish you'd slept in."

Zelika ran to go fulfill her duties and her mother was left in peace to enjoy the beautiful spring day.

_That's my girl, _She thought. _Distracting the servants so she can climb a wall four times her size and explaining it in just such a way that it's endearing rather than rebellious. _

She could see the future stretched like out before them like the plains to the east of Baladh. Her girl would go from evading servants to evading hulls or opponents in competitions and would hopefully approach them in the same way, taking cues from her ancestors and coming home un injured and victorious.

She looked around at the flowers and pictured Zelika in her mind. Dark hair, pale skin, and eyes alight with curiosity, intelligence and strength as yet untested, she was beautiful. She tried to picture Zelika sitting in her place, older and round with child and she settled comfortably into her dream of what could be.

The gardens were peaceful and lovely and full of life, but as she rested warm and happy, scooping up water lilies in her palm to see the fish swimming beneath, she realized just how much she loved the occasional distraction.

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Hey, this was basically just a way of using what I thought about while writing Baladh's Fall. This is just a nice sort of day that might have happened before the Dark Army started moving.

It's the first in a series of one shots about various characters before the war these will be set at times ranging from before the destruction of Pellinor to around the time when Baladh fell. I'm doing this because happy fics are fun to write.

Thanks to my reviewers, they are awesome. Become one of them!!!!

Thank you all for reading,

PM


	2. Milana After Work

Lady Milana was tired but happy as she returned to her quarters after a long day of fulfilling her duties as First Bard of Pellinor. New rumors concerning the Dark had kept her busy lately, making it hard for her to spend more than the smallest of moments with her young children, Maerad and Cai, or to enjoy the company of her husband, Dorn.

The rumors had been dealt with though, at least for the moment, so it was with a sort of relief that she took her lyre from its place in the bedroom. She could hear Dorn singing in the nursery. She smiled. _Surely_, she though, _that is why I love him. If the Nameless One had heard Dorn's voice, he'd have started an age of song rather the Great Silence. _

She walked quietly to the nursery and stood in the doorway for a moment, watching. The two children were cradled in his arms, though Maerad was more on his lap than that description implies. She watched her father's lips move and reached out, touching his throat as he sang, paying far more attention than many would deem possible for one her age. _Now there's a true Bard. We'll have to start her music lessons once her hands have grown a bit. _Cai was sleeping, the music having calmed him a little too much.

Milana lifted her lyre and stepped into the room, playing the soft chords that would perfectly harmonize with the gentle lullaby that he was singing the children. The lullaby was about Afinil, celebrating its beauty and mourning the loss of its innocence and its destruction. It was a duet, the celebration and the sorrow divided into two parts, and Milana sang the heartbreaking second part, which detailed Afinil's fall. Her voice joined with his forming the song just as the two of them had been joined in the children they sang to.

Maerad and Dorn looked up at her from their chair facing the door. The little girl smiled and carefully slid from her father's lap before running to her. She stopped at her mother's feet to ask politely and silently, with pleading eyes and a tugging gesture on her dress, to be picked up.

Milana knew what she wanted and carefully dropped to her knees, not missing a note. Maerad sat on the floor in front of her, watching her hands move and reaching out to touch her mother's wrists or the carved script on the lyre.

When the song ended, she rose, sat the lyre on a chair, and turned to scoop her daughter up into her arms.

"By the Light! My loves, you are a sight for weary eyes. Who'd have ever thought that the day would come when being First Bard would mean working hard," she said softly, with a wry smile, "And once again it seems that my Maerad has grown in my absence. Didn't I tell you to stop doing that?"

Maerad giggled a bit before saying, "Have to get bigger, Momma. Make music."

"Now why should you have to get bigger to make music? Dorn, what have you been telling this child?"

"No more than the truth, Milady. Her hands are too small to grasp a lyre and think how silly she'd look if her hands grew and the rest stayed small."

"Well, I can't argue with that. Alright dear, grow all you want, but do try and do it slowly. I'd hate to miss out."

Maerad nodded solemnly.

Dorn smiled at her before rising and putting Cai into his cradle.

"Now that that's cleared up, I think it's time for our dear one to join her brother in sleep," Dorn said, taking Maerad from her mother's arms and putting her on her bed. Once settled under her blanket, she drifted off to sleep almost instantly.

The two parents watched fondly for a moment, then Milana took her lyre from the chair were she'd placed it and the two left the nursery. They went to their bedroom and sat down on the sill of an enormous window, drawing back the curtains that kept the room from heat through the glass. Gazing out, they could see much of the School.

There were stone pathways and walls inlayed with mosaics that had been formed long ago from bits of colored glass and stone. There were lifelike statues and fountains of pure water, some with flowers floating in them. The walls stood strong and seemingly invulnerable, almost out of sight from where Milana watched through her window near the center if the School. Everything seemed to glow in the moonlight and even as the hour grew late they could hear distant singing and music, both from elsewhere in the building and more distantly from groups of musicians who gathered by the larger fountains with old friends.

_How dares the dark to threaten this place?_ Milana thought. _We have so much to protect and to fight for. My children will learn here. My love and I will count this place above any home we've know, and so shall the multitude of others that will build lives here. This place will not fall while hope still lives in me. _

"So pensive, my love. Do the rumors still trouble you?"

Dorn took her hand in his, massaging it gently while awaiting her reply.

"I've done what I can. The number of guards at the wall has been doubled, and the people have been warned to be on alert. It just doesn't feel like enough. How are the children? Maerad seems well enough."

"They are brilliant, as always, though they've missed you. Maerad is wonderfully excited about starting lessons soon and Cai is beginning to find his balance. We're going to have our hands full with them quite soon."

"We don't now? If Maerad were anymore stubborn she'd be insufferable and you can already see the mischief in Cai's eyes."

"As if you don't love them all the more for it. In all honesty, if a little stubbornness and mischief are the biggest of our worries, I will count us far too fortunate."

"I've counted myself far too fortunate from the moment that I first saw you."

Dorn stood and used the hand that he'd been massaging to pull her into his arms, pressing her back to his chest and leaning down to kiss her cheek. Milana relaxed against him, allowing the warmth of his arms and the love words he whispered into her ear to sooth her after a long day of research, and meetings, and decisions. Tomorrow, there would be other crises demanding her attention, but tonight she could rest. Her School and her loved ones were safe and would remain that way. _As long as hope lives in me,_ she vowed once more as she turned to kiss her husband. She pictured Cai and Maerad in her mind. _As long as hope still lives, this School can never truly fall. I swear it. _

_

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_

Hey Guys, I'm back again after a long forced hiatus from Pellinor fanfiction ( I didn't have access to the books so I had to wait until I could acquire them). This was set before the sacking of Pellinor and is just sort of how I imagined things. Dorn is singing to them and putting them to bed because Milana is tired.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed / alerted the first story in this collection. The next one shot may still contain Maerad and Cai, I'm toying with the idea of doing one that focuses on the two of them . One way or another I should be posting another for this collection soon.

Thank you all for reading this and any reviews would make me very happy. Till next time, P_M.


	3. Maerad Teaches Cai

Maerad was annoyed with her brother. That much was obvious to Dorn as he and Milana walked into the nursery. He watched them for a moment.

Cai was sitting on the floor, playing with one of his toys, while Maerad moved around him. She stood in front of him humming a folk song that Dorn had taught her. Next, she moved closer holding Cai's face up so that he was looking at her. Finally, she ran around behind him and corrected his posture before starting the process over again. Each time she did it he'd just look at her for a moment before returning to his toy.

Eventually Dorn walked over to them and asked, " What is my Maerad doing with her brother?"

"I teach Cai to listen to music," She said, before resuming her motion around him.

Dorn laughed and looked over his shoulder at Milana before focusing on Maerad.

"Is he being a good student?"

She shook her head emphatically.

"No! Cai play and not learn."

"Can I help?"

"No, Dad music make Cai sleep. "

"I promise I won't make him go to sleep."

"Alright."

So Dorn sat down and sang silly songs while Maerad moved around trying to make Cai sit up and pay attention. Milana sat in the doorway smiling. _Look at my little ones, Maerad flitting around her brother like a little bird. _

Milana remembers the last time that Maerad got it into her head to teach Cai. She had been so frustrated when he wouldn't learn to talk. She remembers that an unfamiliar Bard had approached them in the garden during her "lesson" and the way that Maerad had stood and moved to stand in front of Cai. She couldn't imagine a girl more protective of her brother. She also had trouble imagining a child more eager to learn, so it was easy to see why Maerad was so determined to share knowledge with her brother. All the same, Cai already tended to dislike stillness and quietly listening, or being read or lectured to, was not going to hold his interest. It was an impasse lived out regularly.

"No more," Maerad said decisively, before noticing Milana in the doorway and running over to her crying, "Story? Story please?"

"No more teaching for my Maerad?"

"Not today, Mom. Story?"

"Alright, let me tell you about Ardina, the Elidhu who fell in love with a king."

"What's an Elidhu?"

Dorn, who'd continued to watch Cai after Maerad had given up, smiled and had to try very hard to hold back his laughter.

Cai was humming. He was still playing and was rather focused on his toy, but he was humming the folk song that Maerad had been humming earlier.

Apparently Cai was a better student than Maerad thought.

* * *

Hey guys, this is another Before the War fic, still set in Pellinor before the School was sacked. This one has more of the kids than the last one did. As finals approach I'm going to have to focus less on fanfiction but after about the next 2 or 3 weeks, I'll probably have more time to spend on things like this.

Thanks as always to my reviewers and people who have alerts out on me and this story. Happy Easter!

P_M


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